Friday, July 25, 2014

Four-Legged Furry Friday Featuring Maria and Elijah

Hi, friends! Welcome to another addition of your favorite monthly series, Furry Friday Feature. This month I am excited to introduce you to Maria from www.lilMysNinja.com and her favorite four-legged running partner, Elijah!

Hi, Maria. Tell us a little bit about your favorite running partner.
Elijah is my foster failure. When he was a puppy we thought he might have been a spaniel/shepherd mix. However, he favors a retriever. We're still not sure of the exact breed mix and I think that maybe one day I'll do that pet DNA test just to satisfy my curiosity but for now, I'm happy with just knowing that he loves to run with me. He's now 1 year and 2 months old. (From Lea: we're a little back logged on Furry features, Elijah is probably a year and eight months by now!)

Where is your favorite place to run with your pooch?
We run on the road. It's easy to run in my neighborhood with him since he doesn't run long distances yet. But I also like to take him to pub runs on Monday nights and the Riverfront canal. There are always several people there running and walking their dogs. But it doesn't matter to him where we go as long as he gets to go with me. I hope to one day try some trails with him.

Have you ever raced with your dog?
Elijah ran his first 5k in May 2013 and we ran it again in May 2014. It was a race specifically for dogs called See Spot Run. We had a blast.

Meet Maria and Elijah! They are both adorable!

Tell us about a running moment that made you proud!
One of my favorite Elijah running moments was the day we moved to a hands free running leash! Training Elijah was a task. He was always so excited, always pulling on his leash, and not to mention my fear of him swerving in front of me and causing a collision. However, over the course of a few months, with constant training and repetition, it's all paid off! He listens to the commands and now runs along beside me on the left hand side using his hands free leash. I love it!

Recently we moved to a hands free leash. I was so happy when we took that hands free leash for a spin. He listened to all the commands and not once did I have to worry about whether I had made the right decision or not.

What important running (or life) lesson can we learn from our dogs?
Let loose, smile and run free! I love looking down at Elijah when we are running and seeing that beautiful dog grin on his face! He's just happily running and reminds me that despite all the stuff I go through, sometimes it's good to forget about the time, the training, the stress and just RUN.

If you want to see more of Maria and Elijah, you can check them out on www.LilMysNinja.com and follow them on social media.

If you're a runner who would like to be featured with your favorite furry four-legged running partner just fill out this form to be considered for a future Furry Friday feature. (Bonus points if
you can say that five times fast.)

If you want to check out some other great running dog blogs, check out Top Dog Running Blogs (spoiler alert: clicking on link will lead to cute pictures of running dogs).

I agree. It is really up to the owners to know what their dogs are capable of handling, but unfortunately not everyone is up to the task. Sorry you had a bad experience. I used to be scared of dogs as a child, but once I had a few dogs of my own as an adult, I overcame that fear. I do, however, get a little antsy when stray dogs follow or bark at us when Ollie and I are running. You just never know what they are going to do!

Thanks Jody! I understand the uneasiness. I'm always worried about other dogs and their owners. Not everyone knows how to properly train their dog for running with them. Elijah is pretty good at listening to the "leave it" command when running past other people, except when he sees other dogs running with their humans. He is so social that he wants to play with every dog he comes across. I think the important thing that most owners should practice is handling their dog properly when out in areas that runners and/or walkers frequent. I'm sorry about your experience. I myself am always worried when I'm running alone. I've had a chained dog jumped at me as I ran by and that alone freaked me out. And just recently I was approached by a couple of loose dogs and I was at first nervous but lucky for me, they were friendly. But you never know!!

So sweet! I'm a huge fan of Elijah and Maria, who I follow on Instagram :) Her best posts are the sad faced Elijah pouting at the side of the treadmill on the days Maria doesn't run outside. Will you share your training tips for hands-free leash running?